| Praise for Surviving |
“From the kiddush cup on
the cover to the pictures of the new baby at the end, this is a
highly engaging book. It is the story of a new Jewish family and
presented with the newest of techniques: photos, art work, letters,
certificates and maps. It will engage and delight every reader.” |
| —Ari L. Goldman, the author of The Search for God at Harvard and former New York Times religion editor |
| “Moving, understated, and
powerful.” |
| —Deborah E. Lipstadt, Ph.D., the author of History on Trial: My Day in Court with David Irving and Dorot Professor of Modern Jewish and Holocaust Studies at Emory University |
| Surviving...As Seen In... |
| Surviving wins 1st place in NJOP (National Jewish Outreach Program) Judaica Across America Contest |
| The Jewish Star February 22, 2008 |
| InterFaithFamily.com: February 2009 |
| leah in chicago: March 2, 2009 |
| "We're in a constant state of writing autobiographies and making them available for free, so why would we move from pixel to paper and sell the bound copy. Surviving is an example of why we should be willing to pay for books by bloggers, even if you think you know the story already. Written by Akira Ohiso and designed by his wife Ellie Ohiso, Surviving weaves together Akira's path of conversion to Judaism and the stories of the Holocaust survivors he worked with in New York as a social worker. Ellie did an amazing job of making the book a triumph of design as well. Photographs and handwritten letters are mixed with the story that Akira unravels." |
| lJewish Book World: Spring 2010 Issue |
| "This small but powerful book tells a story in deeply emotional terms, yet manages to follow a straightforward path that points directly at Judaic love, and by doing so not only reflects our own, but at the same time broadens and strengthens it. Akira wrote the words and his wife, Ellie, designed the pages, culminating in a book that is a pleasure to hold, read, look at, and absorb. Complete with a timeline that traces the roots of Akira's Judaism back to his Jewish great-grandfather and down to his baby son, it takes the reader on a journey from the Russian pogroms of 1911 to the birth of Boaz Jules Ohiso in New York City in 2006. Akira himself was born in 1970, the child of interracial parents, his mother an Irish-Russian Jew , his father a Japanese immigrant. He converted to Judaism in 2003, a year before his marriage to a Jewish woman, finding himself at a spiritual crossroads that offered to both enhance and reinforce his beliefs, offering him the kind of Judaic nourishment he now lovingly passes on to his son. This book is the story of that journey." |
